It's a cooperative effort among churches to make Christmas a world-changing event again, by working toward a day when no one in the world will lack clean water. It would take $10 billion to achieve that....and Americans spend $450 billion annually on Christmas.
I want to be a part of that. My church's leadership team has pledged to be a part of it, too. And last Sunday we introduced the Advent Conspiracy to our flock, and I believe we will make a difference. I believe we will be a part of the kind of change depicted in this graphic (linked to a Google Earth map on the AC website, giving more detail):
I want my family's Christmas celebration this year to be a part of the change Tony Biaggne wrote about a few days ago on the Advent Conspiracy blog,I just got off the phone with Stan Patyrak from Living Water International. I always know when Stan has big news for me because he get this real heavy tone, like the words themselves weigh 50 pounds and he can barely spit them out. He says to me, “Bro, I have some news. Because of Advent Conspiracy, about 340 wells have been drilled. Do you know what that means? That’s 200,000 people. It’s probably more than that, but, man, that’s 200,000 people!” My jaw dropped...those words did weigh 50 pounds. After a few tearful words, I hung up and thanked God. I thanked God for letting us play a role in serving those who Jesus would call “the least of these”. I thanked Him for my pastor and the other two pastors who started this movement for their wisdom and passion. I thanked God for allowing me to be alive and witness something this powerful. I thanked Him for showing me how good it can feel to give relationally. And finally, I thanked him for crazy. For crazy ideas that give people clean water and for crazy people like you who get behind these ideas. Thank God for crazy. Let the Christmas season begin.Amen.
A wonderful cause!
ReplyDelete